


Our Filthy Hands Can Wash One Another's

by raisedbycarnies



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Foul Language, Mentions of Suicide, Not super Graphic, PTSD, Post-Game(s), actual relationship stuff starts slow, but there's a little gore, but we'll get there kids, only two survivors, starts outside the burning lodge, survivor's guilt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-26 22:08:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5022313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raisedbycarnies/pseuds/raisedbycarnies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've been through hell and Chris and Ashley are the only ones to leave Blackwood Mountain that night. With only each other for support, they struggle to recount the traumatic events and try to find any hint of normalcy in their lives afterwards. </p><p>Title is from the song "Soul Meets Body" by Death Cab for Cutie</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

       Chris fell backwards as the lodge burst into an intense wave of heat behind him. His ears rang and the back of his neck felt like it was on fire itself. He rolled to his side, eyes dry and stinging from the heavy smoke, and felt around for his glasses which had fallen off during the explosion. With fumbling fingers, Chris hastily pushed his glasses onto his face, squinting through the dirty lenses.

       “Ashley?” He called out feebly, “Ash, are you okay?” Chris winced as he got to his feet and moved over to the blurry form about ten feet away from him. He’d forgotten that he hurt his leg. When the wendigos came after them, the adrenaline erased the pain, but now Chris could feel the wound flare up again with each agonizing step. He stumbled and lowered himself to the ground next to Ashley, who had only just barely made it out of the lodge. She seemed shaken and a little battered, but otherwise unharmed by the fire.

       Ashley breathed out a heavy sigh of relief and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug. Her eyes were glossy and her breathing was hitched as sobs overtook her body.

       “Chris, oh god, Chris, I can’t believe it,” she gasped, tears streaming down her sooty cheeks, “I can’t believe they’re all gone.” He held her firmly as her body shook with loud sobs and barely coherent babbling. “S-Sam and Emily a-and Mike, oh god, Chris, we’re the only ones left.”

       Taking her head in his hands, Chris looked her in the eyes and did his best to speak calmly. He was on the verge of a total breakdown himself, but he had to take control for both of them. Ashley’s eyes were round and red and brimming with tears. It broke Chris’ heart to see such defeat and loss in her expression. Still, her breathing slowed a little when he spoke.

       “Listen to me, Ash,” he started, his voice catching a little in his throat. “I know. I know how fucked up this is, but we really can’t think about that right now. We have to get the fuck out of here, okay? We need to pull it together. Can you stand?” She bit her lip and nodded silently as she shakily got to her feet. She held out her hand to help Chris up from the ground, shouldering some of his weight so as to put less stress on his injured leg.

       Vaguely seeing helicopters in the distance, Chris gripped Ashley’s hand as they hobbled farther away from the crumbling, horror-filled structure. Together the two teenagers made their way towards where the helicopter was landing. The moving blades sent icy waves of the winter air whipping into their faces, making them numb. The vehicle landed and two rangers rushed out to help the two of them to safety. The first one, a tall woman with black hair, helped hoist Ashley into her seat and aided Chris in climbing into his. There was no talking between either the teenagers or the pilots; the main objective was to transport them to the police station and away from Blackwood Mountain. The other ranger, a rather burly man, equipped them with shock blankets and earmuffs. The next thing Chris knew, they were cutting through the frigid air, the burning lodge fading in the distance. Soon it could only be seen as a small orange glow and a large cloud of black smoke.

       Nobody even attempted making conversation as the group travelled to the police station. Chris and Ashley sat next to each other in the back, not making much eye contact. Ashley had begun crying softly again. Chris only noticed when he happened to glance her way. He wasn’t sure whether or not he should try to comfort her, worried about aggravating the situation. After what seemed like a solid minute of debating with himself, he reached over and laid his hand on top of hers. It was at this point he fully realized just how cold she was. Ashley’s pale hand trembled and was icy to the touch.

        Chris looked at her and couldn’t help but fall victim to her large green eyes. The tears had formed Ashley’s eyelashes into dark triangles. He had to look away as he finally started to feel the same agony she did. There was no veil to Ashley's emotion and it pulled Chris back to reality. He was never the stoic hero; he was as fragile as anybody. Even with everything that the two of them had been through that night, however, Chris didn’t want her to see him cry. He felt Ashley give his hand a light squeeze as she clasped his hand between both of her own. She gently ran her thumb back and forth over his skin and looked out the window, pretending not to notice the boy crying quietly beside her. He’d seen a lot people die that night and lost his best friend. Ashley found herself wondering how Chris could have held it together for this long. Between the two of them, Ashley supposed that Chris had arguably suffered the worst of the tragedy that night.

       After what seemed like years, the helicopter descended and touched ground at a tiny police station in some small Albertan town. Chris would have preferred getting as far away from the mountains as he could get, but he said nothing as the woman helped him out of the helicopter and towards the small building. Soon, Ashley stood beside him and the two rangers spoke together a few feet away, immersed in hushed conversation. They cast a couple of sneaky glances towards Chris and Ashley, no doubt questioning what the hell really happened at the lodge - whether or not they were guilty of something. They wouldn’t believe the real story. They probably thought that a couple of teenagers got drunk, accidentally started a fire, and racked up a body count in the process. Chris didn’t want to think about what they might be saying, so he turned to Ashley.

       “Oh, shit,” he said suddenly, “Ash, you’re freezing, here.” Chris grabbed a railing for support as he reached to unzip his parka to give to her.

       “Chris, I’m fine, really-” she began, coughing dryly from smoke inhalation. He persisted and wrapped his jacket around her narrow, blood-spattered shoulders.

       “Ashley,” a faint smile danced across his mouth, only slightly masking the pure sadness. “I’m wearing like, seven layers and just walked out of a fiery explosion. I can spare one for you.” Ashley couldn’t help but return the weak smile as she pulled the too-big parka snugly around herself. After what seemed like ages, the rangers finally walked back over to escort them into the station for questioning.


	2. Chapter 2

       They were taken to a tiny grey room with cement walls and a video camera. Chris was the first to be questioned while Ashley waited outside with some other police officers. He stood awkwardly against the wall, half balancing on his good leg as a short female detective sat down and started making notes at the steel table opposite him. There was another detective, but he stood in the back corner, mostly observing.

       “So, Chris,” she started plainly, “Start from the beginning. What exactly happened up on that mountain?” Her expression and tone were kind, but Chris could feel her surveying his face. She was searching him for any hint of a lie. He didn’t know what to say. A lot had happened that night; it all seemed like a blur now. Didn’t she know how broad a question that was? All that Chris could hear was the ticking of the large clock on the wall behind him. The fluorescent lights flickered a little and he couldn't stop thinking about how the hell he made it out alive – how grateful he was that Ashley made it out alive. As he tried to speak he could feel himself welling up and his voice cracked. He could barely speak and at one point dissolved into a coughing fit, but gradually told them what happened last year and why they returned.

       “We were in the library a-and then he took her. He pulled Ashley through the door. I tried to go after her but he knocked me out. Oh god, I thought he fucking killed her,” Chris rambled.

       “Who took Ashley?” The woman prodded.

       “The psycho – J-Josh,” Chris stammered. “Josh wanted to get revenge on everybody for what happened to Hannah and Beth.”

       “And what happened after that?”

       Chris looked at his shoes, trying to hold himself together. “Well I woke up and Ashley was gone.” Chris inhaled slowly. “I saw blood on the wall and followed the trail to a shed that was filled with saws and hooks and shit and I saw them both chained up. H-he made me choose who t-to save. He was my best friend and I was going to let Josh die-” Chris couldn’t hold it in anymore. The tears escaped his eyes and rolled down his cheeks in fat droplets. “He used fucking fake bodies and recordings and he needed help, okay? He stopped taking his medication and he needed my help.” Chris held his head in his hands and did his best to answer the rest of their questions. They hadn’t believed a word he said about wendigos or anything that the stranger had told them, that much was clear. All he could hope for is that they wouldn’t find him guilty of something.

       The quiet male detective escorted Chris out into the dimly lit hallway to wait while they interrogated Ashley. He slumped in the uncomfortable folding chair, pretending not to feel the eyes of everyone in the room burning into the side of his head. Suddenly the world grew more peaceful around him. All that Chris could hear now were the sounds of muffled conversations and ringing phones. Now he was still and the traumatic memories started to truly seep out of his brain. In all of the commotion no one had really been able to react properly to what happened, but now as Ashley was being thoroughly questioned, Chris had nothing but time.

       On that mountain, Chris learned how it felt to murder his best friend; to see the intestines spill out of Josh’s body. He knew how it felt to hold a gun to his own head and pull the trigger. In just one night, Chris could explain to you in detail what it sounds like when a person’s head is detached from their body. He knew what it looked like for a body to drain of thick, warm blood, pooling and sinking into the clear snow. He lost six friends in a matter of hours without truly knowing what happened to them. No matter what he did, Chris couldn’t escape his thoughts. Images flashed before his eyes of the long, sharp claws of the wendigo – claws which could have swiftly ended his life, the same ones that sliced through the stranger’s neck with ease and dragged Josh away from the shed. Actually, he couldn’t erase the wendigo from his mind at all. He remembered the elongated limbs, the protruding ribs, the milky blue eyes that he’d come far too close to during his sprint back to the lodge. However the wendigo wasn’t the only thing to haunt him; simply another item added to the list of horrors that he was forced to experience.

       Chris’ ears were filled with the sounds of Ashley pleading for him to shoot her and Josh’s disguised voice encouraging him to kill somebody. He could still hear saws whirring and monsters screeching. Most prominently though, his brain hurt, hearing the loud crack of a gun pressed firmly against his jaw. He could feel it, too – the cold steel and the outrageous pain of firing the blank round. Chris had been prepared to take his own life.

       Now, slumped in his seat, he held his head in his hands and rubbed furiously at his eyes. The pain from his leg seemed to metastasize in the past half hour and spread to his chest. It felt as if his heart were wrung out and tied in a knot. Chris could feel each heartbeat throughout his entire body and breathing began to feel like a nearly impossible feat. He repositioned his arms to wrap tightly around himself as he suffered in silence. He morbidly wondered now if death by gunshot wound would have been preferable to the pain he felt now. A kind of paralysis set in, trapping him in his own mind for another hour until finally Ashley was released.


	3. Chapter 3

       Ashley walked out of the tiny room with slightly puffy eyes, but wore a steely expression. She sat down next to Chris as the two detectives conversed once more. Her irritation faltered a little when she noticed the state of distress that her friend was in. Rather than saying anything, she simply scooted her chair closer to his and gently rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Ashley reached behind him and placed her hand on his back, slowly rubbing small circles and breathing deeply. Chris tensed up a little at her touch, but eventually his own breathing slowed and his muscles started to relax.

       “We’re going to be okay,” Ashley murmured, almost inaudibly. “I know that we’re going to be okay, Chris.” He turned his head slightly in her direction, eyes still aimed at the blue and beige tiles of the police station floor.

       “How can you be so sure?” He asked. Ashley looked up at him with her sad, round eyes and considered this thoughtfully for a few seconds before answering.

       “Because we have to be,” she stated simply, “And we’re going to have each other to lean on. I’ve still got your back, Chris. Do you still have mine?”

       “Of course I do, Ash,” he answered, smiling a little, “Though I might be leaning more on you than you will on me,” Chris gestured at his bad leg. Ashley scoffed, leaning into Chris’ side again. A small, breathy laugh escaped his lips. It felt strange to laugh at a time like this, but something about having Ashley by his side kept Chris grounded. Somehow he felt like he could be himself with her; he could almost revert back to the person he was only hours ago, before tragedy struck the group of eight.

       “Okay, we’re going to get you two to the hospital. Then you’ll be free to go unless we need your help again with the investigation,” the female detective informed them. “But don’t go too far. We’ll need you close by if we find anything new.”

       “That’s it?” Ashley asked incredulously, “You’re just letting us go? I mean, y-you believe us?”

       “I don’t believe shit,” the detective responded without missing a beat. She looked at Ashley curiously. “I don’t believe in monsters, young lady, but our investigation has barely started. We have no reason to charge you with anything yet. Trust me, you’ll be hearing from us if we find any damning evidence against you,” she said cryptically before turning and walking away. This left her male counterpart to guide the teenagers to the ambulance out front.

       It was only about a twenty minute drive to the hospital from there. Chris and Ashley sat side by side in the back of the ambulance. The detective sat directly across from them, staring absently at his hands. A couple of times it looked as though he was going to say something but thought better of it and bowed his head. The rest of the trip passed by in silence as they passed over deserted, snow-topped Alberta roads.

       The hospital wasn't very busy, so they were each taken by doctors instantly. Ashley’s inspection went by very quickly. They cleaned up her cuts and gave her some ice for her black eye, but she didn’t need any stitches and she showed no sign of concussion, so she was free to sit in the waiting room for Chris. He hobbled out on crutches fifteen minutes later and took a seat beside her.

       “So it looks like we’re going to have to wait for x-ray results. They think it’s probably a fracture,” Chris explained. “They should have them for me later today, but we have some waiting ahead of us.”

       “Well we can’t check into a hotel without credit cards, so I guess we’ll have to hang around here until then,” Ashley mumbled. Then she stood up, shrugging off the heavy parka given to her by Chris and noticing again her blood-stained hoodie. Grimacing, she unzipped it, balled it up, and dropped it into a nearby trash can. She looked up and noticed Chris’ worried expression.

       “Don’t worry, the police already took a sample of the blood,” Ashley reassured him. Even if she could get the stains out, she never wanted to see that sweater ever again.

       Chris let out a deep sigh and leaned back in his chair. He took off his glasses, but kept his layers on. Although the hospital was heated, he still felt chilled to the bone. Now he realized how exhausted he was, and it wasn’t long until he was asleep. Ashley had seen him sleep before, but now it was different. He used to be a deep sleeper – still as a rock and sometimes he would even snore. She watched briefly as his expression changed as he slept and his body became restless. Chris woke up every ten minutes are so, drifting in and out of consciousness. Ashley was tired, too, but she was afraid to close her eyes. She had no idea what nightmares would be waiting for her.

       In her interview she had to relive the most traumatic moments of her life. She told the police about the prank last year and her involvement, eliciting the guilt that she’d worked so hard to repress. She also had to talk about the séance and being dragged away by Josh. Ashley had to tell them about being tied up and faced with an enormous saw blade. There was a moment in which she really wasn’t sure if Chris would make the decision not to save her. Even though it turned out Josh orchestrated the whole situation and wasn’t bisected, Ashley still felt guilty about Chris saving her. She heard blood and intestines fall to the floor with a sickening splash beside her, simply because a lever was pulled a certain way. Then she had to talk about stabbing Josh and being punched and tied up to a chair in the basement. Again, her supposed fate was placed in Chris’ hands. As saws descended above them, she was forced to plead with him and watch as her best friend turned the gun on himself. In a way, Ashley found the psychological horror of the night scarier than any of the monsters. Of course the wendigos were terrifying, but Ashley had only seen them at the end of the night and never got close to one.

       Her mind was reeling with what must have happened to the others that night. She never saw Matt and Emily after they left for the cable car station. She knew that Sam and Mike never made it out of the lodge behind her. Mike came back from the mines with the key for the cable car, but without Josh. As for Jessica, Ashley never saw her after she went to the cabin. Ashley thought back to when she heard someone calling out when she was walking through the sewers. She’d ignored the voice, remembering what the stranger’s journal said about the wendigos using mimicry to lure in their prey. Ashley was too afraid to follow the cries for help, but now she wondered if she was wrong. What if that had really been Jessica? What if Ashley could have saved her? Maybe she had even played an indirect role in killing her. These were the thoughts that she simply couldn’t shake from her head. Ashley’s mind was plagued now with torturous hypothetical situations and the gruesome deaths of those closest to her.

       As hard as she tried to fight it, Ashley's eyes drooped and became heavier with each blink. She didn't want to fall asleep - to experience the whole terrifying night all over again in her dreams, but time had gotten the best of her. After a couple of minutes of straining to keep her eyes open, fatigue overrode her body and she fell asleep beside Chris.


	4. Chapter 4

       Chris didn’t know when it happened, but he woke up to find Ashley asleep, her head resting on his shoulder. She had her feet tucked under her and her breathing was sharp and quiet. Chris shifted in his seat a little, careful not to wake her, and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. The battery was down to 13%, but it was still usable. Chris looked at the time and read that it was already 12:42. His stomach groaned in protest of hunger, but Chris couldn’t think of anything less appetizing than food. It felt like his torso was voided of all internal organs and filled instead with bags of sand. He sat motionless, gazing at the screen of his phone. Despite having given his emergency contact information to the police, Chris had yet to contact his parents. Maybe they’d called them, but somehow he doubted it. He hadn’t received so much as a text. The thought of explaining everything again made his insides churn, but he knew that his phone would die soon. Ashley probably hadn’t spoken to her family either. Chris decided to turn off his phone until she woke up and pocketed it, instead opting to stare into space and trying desperately to clear his mind.

  
       Hour after hour passed by as neither Chris nor Ashley moved a muscle. Chris gazed at his hands with an expression of resigned emptiness and Ashley still fidgeted in restless sleep. At long last, the doctor finally returned with Chris’ results. He was an older fellow with greying hair and small, kind eyes. Ashley awoke at the sound of the approaching footsteps, dazedly sitting up and removing herself from Chris’ shoulder.

  
       “Well, son, it looks like you’ve got yourself a fracture like we thought,” The man smiled at him. “Nothing too serious; luckily the bone hasn’t shifted or anything. We should be able to fit you for a cast here quick and you guys can get on home.”

  
       Chris nodded solemnly before retrieving his crutches that were leaning against the seat next to him, and followed the doctor back to a room. Ashley waited patiently, occupying her mind with counting the tiles on the ceiling. Eventually though, there was no more counting to be done. Ashley’s mind itched for her to think about all of the horrible things she’d seen. She kept trying to push the memories back, but they were resilient and unable to be controlled. The night still loomed over her like a thick, toxic fog. She looked up again at the incessantly ticking clock on the wall. Chris had only been gone for five minutes. How has it only been five minutes? Ashley sat cross-legged on her chair and wrung her hands in her lap. Looking at her wrists, she only now noticed the two large purple bruises. She must have gotten them from fighting against her restraints in the basement. Or was it from being tied up next to Josh? She couldn’t be sure which particular nightmare did this to her.

  
       Through everything, Ashley’s thoughts always came back to sitting across a table from Chris, shackled to a wooden chair, with a gun placed ominously between them. It all came flooding back to her. _It’s just not fair!_ She had writhed in her confinements. She could almost feel the pressure on her wrists again and the hot tears streaming down her face. _We’re always talking around it._ Ashley rambled and her breathing was hitched and ragged. The adrenaline had caused her to come clean, not caring if Chris said anything at all. She just felt like she had to tell the truth before she died. But Chris did reply. His words didn’t fully register in her brain until later. _None of it was wasted._ Still, Ashley couldn’t help but wonder if his words were sincere or just a spur-of-the-moment outburst. Of course, she’d kissed him later that night, she’d nearly forgotten. But she initiated it. She tried hard now to remember if he kissed her back, but her memory of it was cloudy. She hoped he did.

  
       Ashley brushed the thought aside as Chris started hobbling his way back down the hallway. He was sporting a bulky white cast and the same two silver crutches, but Ashley was looking at his face. Although they cleaned him up, he looked like hell. She hadn’t really noticed it until now. Tufts of his blond hair pointed in every direction and it was still spotted with soot. The massive bruise that occupied just under half of his forehead was darkening, turning to sickening shades of purple and green. It was painful to look at, standing out against his pale skin, which had lost its rosy hue. She didn’t know how it was possible, but as he got closer, she could have sworn that even his bright blue eyes had lost their colour. He almost seemed like a total stranger to her now. Sure, he’d tried to crack a few jokes, but his entire demeanor was different now. Chris no longer had that barely hidden smile or the look in his eye that told you he was ready to strike with a string of bad jokes.

  
       When he walked up to her, he gave Ashley a reassuring smile, but there was no happiness behind his eyes. He seemed like a mere shell of himself, or like something was possessing his body, trying desperately to pass as Chris. Ashley tried to return the smile, but it just made her too sad. He sat down next to her again and sighed, looking at his leg.

  
       “So, what do you say?” Chris asked with an attempt at a light-hearted tone. “Want to be the first one to sign my cast?” He smiled at her, clearly trying to make her happy.

  
       She gazed up at him and gave him a weak half smile. She appreciated the sentiment, she really did, but it only pained her to see Chris ignore his own pain in order to lessen hers. He was doing it again – putting Ashley first. She swallowed and looked down at her hands. She could feel her eye throbbing and her wrists ached. Where had she put that ice pack? Before she could look for it though, Chris placed a large hand on her shoulder.

  
       “Hey, are you doing alright?” He asked with real worry, as though he himself hadn’t gone through several emotional breakdowns throughout the course of the day.

  
       “Of course I’m not,” Ashley peered at him curiously. “And neither are you. Chris, how can you pretend to hold it together like this?"

        Chris didn’t speak for a moment. His smile faltered slightly, but he fixed his kind eyes on hers as he responded.

  
       “Well it’s like you said, isn’t it? We’re going to be okay. I guess we’re both on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster here,” he chuckled and then adopted a slightly more serious tone. “But you were right. No matter what happens now, Ashley, I’ll have you by my side and you’ll have me by yours. I care about you, and you being here for the oncoming shitstorm will make it all the more bearable.” Chris eyed her carefully, gauging her reaction.

  
       Ashley’s chest softened at his words. She made sheepish eye contact with him and could have sworn that his eyes seemed just a little more blue. A small smile forced its way onto her face and Ashley couldn’t stifle a giggle.

  
       “What?” Chris asked, looking a little self-conscious now at his choice of words. Was what he said embarrassing? Maybe he should have left it alone.

  
       “I guess what you’re telling me,” she teased, “is that we’re going out of the frying pan and into the fire?”

  
       “Oh my god,” Chris looked away and leaned back in his chair. He took off his glasses and closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Ashley, you are such a _nerd_. You have to stop.” He was smiling. Ashley thought it might be the most genuine one she’d seen from him in a long time.

  
       “Oh, that’s rich,” she bit back playfully, gently nudging his arm. “Mr. Technology Geek is calling _me_ a nerd? I don’t think so.”

  
       Ashley enjoyed the light banter, even if it felt forced. For a brief moment it was almost as if they hadn’t just been treated for wounds after being attacked by monsters in the woods. She could almost tear herself away from the thought that six of her friends were brutally killed. Almost. 


	5. Chapter 5

       Chris had hoped that they could stay like this forever. In this moment they were just two kids laughing side by side as if nothing had happened. Ashley had always been easy to talk to. For a couple of years the two of them would study together and get pizza and laugh at bad movies that Josh told Chris to watch. Those were the moments that he cherished the most. Chris always loved the way Ashley would scrunch up her nose whenever he made a stupid joke about one of the characters, and how she would stick her cold feet under his legs to warm them up. He loved the way she would fire off into a rant about poor character development and clichés in the narrative. He loved the way she snorted when she laughed really hard. What Chris didn’t love was that he was a coward. One day he finally had to accept the fact that he was in love with her, but he was too afraid. He had tried so hard to convince himself that she was just a friend. If he told her the truth, she might not feel the same way, she might hate him, she might not spend time with him anymore. What was that line she was always quoting from Hamlet? _Thus conscience does make cowards of us all_.

       He smiled at the fond memories, then was pulled back to reality when Ashley interrupted his thoughts. She was looking at him expectantly, as though she had just asked him something.

       “Sorry, what did you say?” He asked, confused.

       “Your phone, do you have it? I should probably call my parents.”

       “Oh, yeah,” he extracted his phone from his pocket and handed it to her.

       Ashley took it and walked over to a different section of the room. Chris could only hear snippets of the conversation. It was brief, but he could hear her start crying as she explained everything to her family. He dreaded the moment that came next. Ashley walked back and held the phone back out to him.

       “My parents are going to come and get us,” she informed him carefully, trying not to let her voice waver. “They’re going to be here soon.”

       “How could they be close? I didn’t think that the police contacted anyone.”

       “I guess they did, but my phone is dead and you had yours on airplane mode. Apparently the lodge was on the news. Nothing about – well about anyone else, just that there was a big fire. Anyways, my parents talked to yours and they’ve agreed that we’ll drive you back home.”

       Of course. Chris had forgotten that he’d done that. After experiencing all of the creepy shit in the basement, he activated airplane mode to save his battery. Just in case he ever got the opportunity to call for help.

       “That’s awfully nice of them. Thanks, Ash.”

       He took his phone back and scrolled to see 30 missed calls and about 50 text messages. He couldn’t avoid it any longer; he had to face the truth and call them. Not wanting to strain himself by walking and standing in a corner, he just dialled the number where he was sitting beside Ashley.

       His mother picked up the phone halfway through the first ring. She was frantic and rambling and clearly very upset. It was a solid minute before Chris could get a word in. Ashley got up and paced the room so that it wouldn’t seem like she was eavesdropping.

       “It’s really good to hear your voice, mom,” Chris said after being bombarded with questions. “Listen, I’d rather explain everything in person.”

       Chris continued to give his mother an abridged version of the night’s events, barring the wendigos and the stunts pulled by Josh. He would save that can of worms for when he got home. He held it together surprisingly well, eyes glazed over and expressionless as he explained that only he and Ashley made it off the mountain. Finally he was able to hang up, insisting to his mother that his phone would die at any moment. He turned it off again and slid it back into his pocket as Ashley reclaimed her seat next to him.

       They sat in silence, looking around the room soberly. Ashley fumbled with her thoughts, wanting more than anything to say something to Chris. The uncertainty was driving her insane; she had to know if he meant what he said in the basement. But how do you go about that? _Hey, so I know all of our friends just died horrible, bloody deaths, but did you mean it? Do you really like-like me?_ It was wildly inappropriate, but she couldn’t say nothing. Ashley twisted uncomfortably in her seat as she turned to face Chris.

       “Can I ask you something?” She blurted out. Chris raised his eyebrows at her in surprise.

       “Shoot,” he answered. “Ask me anything you like.”

       “It’s just,” Ashley bit her cheek as she chose her words carefully. “I might be embarrassing myself here, but did you mean what you said last night?” She scrambled for something else to say, out of fear that she would be met by only silence. “I mean, it’s totally fine if it was just a ‘we’re-going-to-die’ type thing. I know people can say some crazy things in life or death situations, so I wouldn’t blame you if that was the case, I just need to kno-”

       “Ashley, slow down,” Chris stopped her. He smiled at her shyly. “Of course I meant it. I’ve been such an idiot, Ash. I waited all this time without telling you.”

       She reached over and held his hand, breathing a small sigh of relief. “Do you think we’ll ever go back to normal?”

       “I don’t know if we can,” he said quietly. “Life is going to be a lot different for us now. I don’t think it’s possible for us to walk out of here as if nothing has changed. But I’ll stay by your side for as long as you’ll have me.”

       Without warning, Ashley wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss. It was shocking and awkward and their noses bumped into each other, but it was real. She pressed her lips to his with force, eyes shut tight and memorizing every detail. Chris kissed her back gently as she pulled away.

       “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she closed her eyes and snuggled into his side until her father’s car pulled up outside.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first real experience with posting any writing online, so I extend to you my sincerest of apologies if it's a real piece of garbage. I'll try to work on the story as often as I can and not abandon it after a week like I normally would with most things. God bless, amen, and good night.


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